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In 2000, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and YouthAffairs (MCEETYA) decided to include an Indigenous identifier for staff in theNational Schools Statistics Collection. (NSSC). In 2006, the decision to use theABS standard definition for the collection and reporting on Indigenous staffing wasimplemented and become part of the NSSC reporting requirements. No data are yetavailable from the NSSC.Nevertheless, a general indication of the number of Indigenous teachers andAboriginal and Islander education workers is available from DEST IESIP reports.Table 7.3.1 includes Indigenous Teacher Aides (classified as Indigenous specialistsupport staff) from Queensland government schools for the first time. Informationpreviously published has been adjusted to reflect this.• Indigenous teachers and staff in schools are a much smaller proportion of allteachers and staff than Indigenous students are of all students.• Between 2001 and 2005, there have been increases in the number of Indigenousteachers and other staff in schools.• There was a 9.0 per cent increase in the number of Indigenous teachers ingovernment schools over the period.• The ratio of Indigenous students to Indigenous teachers and Aboriginal andIslander Education Workers (AIEWs) decreased from 27.1 per cent in 2001 to25.8 per cent in 2005.• The number of AIEWs employed in the government system and the Catholicsystem fluctuated between 2001–2005.• In 2004, 2.2 per cent of executive staff in the government system and1.2 per cent of executive staff in the Catholic system were Indigenous(DEST 2006).Table 7A.3.2 shows that 39.3 per cent of AIEWs in government schools and57.5 per cent of AIEWs in Catholic schools had completed or were studyingtowards formal qualifications in 2005. The proportion who had completed or werestudying towards formal qualifications has increased in government schools andCatholic schools since 2001 (31.3 per cent and 47.1 per cent, respectively) 1 .Box 7.3.8 shows a program that provides community based teaching training forIndigenous people.1 Smaller numbers of AIEWs in Catholic systems can mean that small changes in numbersstudying or total AIEWs can cause proportions to vary from year to year without necessarilyindicating a trend.32